Exploring taboos through Socially Oriented Design

Visualising taboos and societal issues. For the last 5 years we've been investigating the possibilities to inform and communicate several societal issues and taboos such as loneliness, mental issues related problems and failure. S.O.D. has been working with students, graphic designers and teachers in Russia, England, France, Norway, Finland and South Korea to investigate these problems within an international framework. S.O.D.’s primary goal is to communicate. Based on the fact that graphic design is one of the best tools available to do so, I am constantly reminding our members to develop their ideas and to design in order to reach our goal, not to win awards. Graphic design is not a sport, but a set of tools and skills that allow us to do a specific work to solve a specific problem. This approach is in line with the general understanding of design and its difference from art: in the Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society, it is understood as an activity where a gap is first defined and a solution is proposed, prototyped and developed. In the case of S.O.D the gap is a lack of attention to the problems of societal issues and taboos, and the design process focuses on developing solutions that could affect these issues in a positive way. Our work can be seen as a non commercial use of Graphic Design, tending to communicate based on emotional responses from the audience instead of consumer's needs. These projects have been a stepping-stone towards future investigations of societal or cultural themes may be put under a new light by using the means of S.O.D. By exposing societal issues as something different than an individualized fiasco. Perhaps S.O.D will make a small, but significant gesture of emancipation to those who feel the need to share their thoughts and make a change.